Royal Liver Building, Iron Railings and Stone Piers Surrounding Royal Liver Building is a Grade I listed building in the Liverpool local planning authority area, England. First listed on 12 July 1966. Office. 91 related planning applications.

Royal Liver Building, Iron Railings and Stone Piers Surrounding Royal Liver Building

WRENN ID
grim-lead-frost
Grade
I
Local Planning Authority
Liverpool
Constituency
Liverpool Riverside MP: Kim Johnson (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
12 July 1966
Type
Office
Address
Royal Liver Building, Iron Railings and Stone Piers Surrounding Royal Liver Building, Georges Pier Head
OS grid reference
SJ 338 903
Coordinates
53.40564, -2.99604
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: EPC · related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Royal Liver Building, surrounded by iron railings and stone piers, is an office building constructed between 1908 and 1910 by architect Aubrey Thomas. It features a concrete frame clad in granite and stands eight storeys tall, with an additional two storeys of attics. The building is composed of nine bays, with 13-bay returns. The front façade includes four giant buttress projections, each one bay wide, with the middle two framing a semi-circular portico supported by Ionic columns and topped with a balustraded parapet. Above this, there is a smaller semi-circular projecting window featuring a shield of arms and Ionic columns. The ground and first floors are rusticated, with round-arched windows on the ground floor. The upper floors, specifically the second, third, seventh, and eighth bays, are recessed behind a parapet and scrolls. The windows are designed with mullions and transoms, typically featuring three lights, while those in the projecting bays have transoms only. The fifth and sixth floors have round-headed recesses with balconies. The top floor is recessed behind a Doric colonnade and is adorned with a frieze and bracketed cornice. The attics recede and are capped with parapets, while the roof is embellished with turrets and domes in receding stages. The building is topped with clock towers that have copper liver birds. The surrounding iron railings and stone piers enhance the overall grandeur of this significant structure, which is recognized as one of the first multi-storey concrete framed buildings in the world.

Local climate

Royal Liver Building, Iron Railings and Stone Piers Surrounding Royal Liver Building sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,080 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 86% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 75% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 19 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 81% of listed buildings. Of these, 9 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
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  • Related listed building consents — 91 applications
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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